Back in the hotel. Managed to get home in time to watch the end of the Texas - Ohio State game in hotel bar. Good times.

In said establishment we're a bunch of 50+ year old Cowboy fans actually wearing Cowboy jerseys. But they seemed well spoken, albeit loudly well spoken, and well groomed. The leader of the bunch had a Bob Lilly jersey on and wouldn't shut up about the virtues of Bob Lilly. I thought about killing him.

Walked down to the Jacksonville Station to get some food only to find out that all the food court places were closed. However, a dance club, a popular one, was in full gear so I got to watch a bunch of folks walk towards it dressed to kill. Triple good times.

The Riverwalk here on the St. John's is spectacular. But it may be the break up capital of the world. Along the way I saw the following people on a cell phone: (1) One 50 year old guy saying, "I think you should go to sleep and we'll talk about it in the morning," and (2) a pretty hip black guy saying, "Baby, people just grow apart."

I thought there was an excellent chance that the Cowboys would be staying here. It's close to the stadium and pretty nice. So far, I haven't seen Bill Parcells' belly in the elevator.

- I'm rather high up
- you couldn't find a ticket from.a scalper (I got mine earlier through stubhub.com)
- I should have invested in short denim skirts because every girl.has one on
- I've got 'hollaback girl' blaring in my ear
- this part of florida is beautiful
- on the way here I saw a 'Men Of God Car Sales' business
- And don't think I'm not po'd about UT and Ohio State playing while I'm here
- typing on a phone is hard (even with a little keypad)

(Above pics with a better camera.)
Well, I'm off to Gainesville, FL which is suppossed to be about an hour and half down the road. I hate what is coming next the most: Finding the stadium and parking in a foreign land. But I'll get there with a few hours to spare so I can roam around the campus and area.
The game, which will probably be a blow out, features the Florida Gators and the Univ. of Central Florida.

Some guy named Steve Holy was the opening act at Jacksonville Landing last night. Typical "new" country and western.
But it was funny when he opened the show with, "I'm from Texas but by looking around I can tell you that all the best looking women are from Florida!" Of course, it was just "play to the crowd" schitck but the crowd loved it.
You girls back home, remember that.

Weather: About 80 degrees with 110% humidity
Traffic: A breeze, even in rush hour. This place seems pretty laid back.
Friendly?: So far, very.
What must be close by: Savannah (lots of signs)
Off to: Some place called Jacksonville Landing

At the time of this post, the plane still hasn't pulled away from the gate. Departure time was to be at 1:10 . Uh, that's not working out to well. The captain said we were waiting on some 'routine maintenance paperwork.'

I hope somebody initials a form very soon. I've already got Tired Butt.

Those that know me understand that every so often I run off for the weekend for a "football trip". This is one of those weekends.
I leave this afternoon to catch a University of Florida football game in the "The Swamp" (pictured) on Saturday and then the Jacksonville-Dallas game on Sunday. I'm taking technology and cameras with me so I'll try to keep you updated along the way. (Even with an experimental cell phone blog.)
My very first trip was documented here. And some will remember my post game auto accident in Tennessee from last year.
And....I'm flying back on Monday, 9/11. I won't let the terrorists win.

9.07.2006

I pride myself on not being easily offended, but the current AT&T/Yahoo commercial bothers me. The word "offended" is probably too strong. Perhaps "uncomfortable" is more appropriate.
The set-up: A couple in bed receives a middle of the night phone call. The husband answers as his wife looks over his shoulder. The guy expresses incredible concern, and says something along the lines of "are you sure?" and "is it him?"
The punch line: He then he gets up to confirm that an NFL player on his fantasy football team is injured.
I uploaded the commercial at youtube here. [Link will come online momentarily.] Yeah, it serves it purpose by getting people (or me, at least) to talk about it.

I've had a couple of people send me this pic. I don't know if it's real.
I was in Jacksboro all morning begging the AG's office not to throw my court-appointed-father-very-late-on-child-support client in the hoosegow. I was successful, for now. It sure didn't feel like a Law and Order episode.

ABC's Nightline had a story on how some U.S. companies slaughter horses to be sold overseas. (Former Rep. Charles Stenholm is in favor of the process.)
Which gives rise to this question: Why do Americans detest the thought of horse meat but embrace cow meat?

Even when you click it, it is hard to read. But, the best I can tell, we have 55 people awaiting felony trials (both regular felonies and "state jail" felonies) and 28 people awaiting misdemeanor trials. (I can't tell how many of those are probation violation allegations.)
It looks like 20 people are serving a county jail sentence (post trial or plea) and 13 people are awaiting to be shipped to the state prison system (post trial or plea).
Total local inmate population is 133 with an additional 35 being held for other counties on a contract basis. But with the new jail, that only brings up to 51% capacity.
My math could be wrong. (And some of the above figures just don't sound right to me.) The pdf file for the above graphic is here.
(Oh, yeah, I bet the vast majority of them are drug users - there has to be a better way.)

Stuff I learned: Our borders are secure, we use really cool airplanes to secure our borders (and I got the feeling that thing was capable of bombing some poor group of Mexicans at the push of a button) and we pay for really cool "I'm a country kinda guy" jackets for our governor.

I have no idea about the facts of this case (which certainly makes me qualified to comment on it), but it doesn't mean jack that someone accused of possessing marijuana did not test positive for using marijuana.
Although it's silly to get suspended over a marijuana charge.

I had the craziest dream that former Rep. Tom DeLay wrote a letter to his supporters asking for them to support a contestant on Dancing With The Stars because she "represents good American values in the media."
Then I woke up and found out it was true.